Southern Comfort

by Fern Michaels

  Two and a half hours later, Tick readied the coffee while Pete showered. He’d spent the past couple of hours on the small sofa and wanted to take a run on the beach to stretch his stiff muscles but decided it could wait until later. He had the little girl to think about, which made him think of Emma and Ricky. God how he missed those two. They had been the core of his existence, the reason he got up every day. Gone before they’d even had a chance at a taste of what life had to offer. Before he gave in to the memories and the depression that usually followed, he thought about the girl sleeping in his room.

  Determined not to let something equally horrifying ruin Rosita’s life, Tick considered asking Kate if he could join their investigation. Off the record, of course. It was time he got back into the loop of life. He allowed himself a mental picture of Sally cheering him on, giving him a high five. She wouldn’t want him pining away the way he had been for the past eight years. Nor would Emma or Ricky.

  Wearing nothing but a towel, Pete strode into the minikitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee before sitting down at the breakfast table. “Coffee smells good.”

  “I hope you plan on getting dressed. We have company, remember?”

  “Yes, I remember. I just needed a caffeine fix, bro. Cut me some slack.”

  “You get any sleep?” Tick asked, pouring a cup for himself.

  “Not much. I couldn’t stop fantasizing about the neighbors,” Pete said, smiling into his cup.

  “Neighbors as in plural?” Tick felt a sharp pang of jealousy. Pete didn’t have any business dreaming about both of their neighbors.

  “Yep, bro, that’s what I said. Though I think the serious one, Kate, has the hots for you. She kept staring at you when you weren’t looking.”

  “Really? You saw her?”

  “With my two very own eyes. For your info, I don’t have any interest in her whatsoever, so if you want, she’s all yours.”

  “Shit, Pete, you make her sound like leftovers!” Tick shook his head and got up to refill his cup. Something told him he was going to need all the energy he could muster even though the day was still young.

  A tapping at the door sent Pete running for cover. Tick raked a hand through his hair, wishing he’d showered, but it would just have to wait.

  Kate and Sandy stood on his miniscule porch, both looking as though they could use a java jump start. He opened the door and stepped aside.

  “Good morning, ladies.”

  “It is, isn’t it?” Sandy observed as she immediately headed for the kitchen, where she made herself at home by grabbing two cups and filling them with coffee. She handed a mug to Kate. “Our girl still sleeping?” she asked after she’d taken a sip.

  “Sound as a rock; I checked on her when I got up. I swear she was smiling. I can’t imagine why she’d smile under the circumstances, but it did my heart good.” Did I really say that? It did my heart good. I sound like a character in one of my novels.

  “Morning, Tick.” Kate offered up a huge grin to her host. “Let’s let her sleep a while longer. When she wakes up, I’d like to question her before I call Jelly.”

  Tick felt like jumping to the moon and back. Kate smiled at him like she meant it, like there was something more to come. Hot damn, if Pete wasn’t right about this woman! Telling himself she wouldn’t have smiled at him had she not been a wee bit interested, he quickly excused himself. “I’ll leave you two alone while I take a quick rinse. There’s more coffee. There are mangoes, bagels, and eggs in the fridge if you’re hungry.”

  “I, for one, am starving. I’ll start breakfast while you do your thing.” Sandy made quick work out of slicing several mangoes, toasting bagels and placing them on two plates, then scrambling a dozen eggs. She scrounged around until she found paper plates, napkins, and plastic forks in the cupboard above the sink.

  “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you’ve been here before,” Kate said, getting up to refill her cup. “You’re comfortable here.”

  Sandy laughed. “I am, aren’t I? Wonder what that means?”

  “That you’ll have dinner with me?” Pete declared as he stepped into the kitchen dressed in navy shorts and a yellow polo shirt with an alligator emblem on the top left of the shirt, his wet hair slicked back like a first-grader on picture day.

  “I don’t think so. I’m working, remember? I can’t just up and take off to Key West or wherever for dinner just because . . . just because. Right, Kate?”

  “No, actually you can go to dinner with Pete. I’m okay with watching the compound. I bet Tick would join me if I asked him to.” Jelly would have her ass for this, but it would give Sandy a much-needed break. If she were completely truthful, it would also give her some time alone with Tick. That is, if he was game enough to join their team, on the QT, of course.

  “Yeah, he would. He probably won’t say anything, him being such a hermit all these years, but he really could use some female companionship. He didn’t come right out and say it, but I’m his brother, I’ll say it for him. I know these things.”

  Kate had the grace to blush. Sandy laughed until tears streaked her cheeks. “I do believe you’ve embarrassed Kate. She’s never been very composed around men, just so you know. Not that experienced either. You might want to mention that to your brother. I’d hate to see him take advantage of her, especially since he’s in the need of some female companionship.”

  “I didn’t mean that. I said he needs . . .”

  “You’d better zip it up while you’re ahead, little brother. I mean it.” Tick had emerged from the shower smelling like Ivory soap and Old Spice.

  “Would you all please stop?” Kate grinned.

  “I second that. I don’t need my little brother to . . . never mind.” Tick gave Pete a scathing look that would surely kill if he stared a second longer. “I think I should check on my guest. It’s about time she woke up,” Tick said.

  “I’ll go to bed with you,” Kate blurted. To cover her faux pas, she quickly followed Tick to his bedroom before Sandy or Pete had a chance to offer up another one of their unsolicited comments.

  Rosita was wide awake and looking at the remote control in her hand like it was a foreign object. Kate guessed it was highly possible, given the appalling circumstances in which they’d found her, that she hadn’t a clue what the contraption was or what it was used for.

  Kate made her way across the room to the king-size bed. Being in such intimate surroundings with Tick made her heart race. She plastered a bright smile on her face, then sat on the edge of the bed next to the child. “Morning, Rosita. I hope you slept well.”

  She nodded, then carefully placed the remote on the night-stand. Kate observed her. Rosita appeared to be frightened. “I came to see if you’re hungry.” At the mention of food, the little girl’s eyes sparkled like diamonds.

  Tick remained in the doorway, shifting from one foot to the other. “Yeah, we’ve got breakfast.”

  Lame, Kate thought, then smiled. He acted almost as though he was embarrassed to be in his bedroom with her. She visualized him standing in the doorway, totally nude, and grinned again, only this time it caused butterflies in her stomach and her heart to race a bit faster than normal. Catching him staring at her, she quickly directed her attention to Rosita. “Sandy and I looked through our clothes, and we picked out a few things that might fit you until we can get you some new clothes. Want to come see?”

  Brown eyes glowing, Rosita jumped to the floor, then expertly made up the bed as though she’d been doing this her entire life. Sad, Kate thought. If her suspicions were true, and there was human trafficking or slavery going down at that compound, it was likely that poor Rosita had been farmed out to work in a hotel or as a maid at a private residence. Exactly how the compound fit into the scheme of things she’d figure out soon enough. Her gut instinct clicked in, telling her she was right on the money, but she’d need more evidence than gut instinct.

  If so, then who is behind it all? Who would take a child of no more than ten or
eleven and treat her like a slave? Kate didn’t know. But when she found out, she promised herself, she would personally see that they were prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law no matter how many favors she had to call in.

  Chapter 16

  They’d just finished their breakfast and were preparing to sit down to speak with Rosita, who was busily attacking her plate of eggs and bagels, when a loud knock on the door surprised them.

  “You expecting more company?” Pete asked Tick.

  Tick cast a wary glance at the door. “No. Either of you?” He glanced at Kate and Sandy.

  “If we were, they wouldn’t come here,” Sandy offered.

  More loud knocking, Pete went to the door and yanked it open. “What can I do for you?” he asked.

  “You can tell those two . . . brownnosers that their superior wants to have a word with them. Now, as in pronto,” Lawrence Tyler demanded.

  When Kate heard the familiar voice, she catapulted to the door like her feet had springs mounted on them. She practically shoved Pete aside. “What the hell do you mean coming here? You’re way out of line, Lawrence,” Kate fumed. How dare this self-righteous jerk question my whereabouts!

  “Apparently you’ve forgotten who’s in charge, Miss Rush. If you and your colleague will step outside, I’ll make this as painless as possible. I also want to speak to the cop when I’m finished with you two. Alone.”

  Kate doubled her hand in a fist as she prepared to knock the smug look off her former superior’s face. Sandy reached her just in time. “He’s not worth it, Kate,” she advised.

  “Maybe not to you, but it sure as hell is to me. What’s your business, Larry? Did big Daddy-o send you on a mission, or is this another of your fishing expeditions? By the way, next time you take that piece-of-crap boat out fishing, get some bait and a better book. Maybe one of Mr. Kelly’s novels would be more entertaining.”

  Tick and Pete had told them about seeing a man in a boat spying on them. Kate had been right to send Sandy somersaulting on the beach. Blood rushed to her head as she stared at her former superior. She forced herself to step back and take a deep breath to gain control over the almost overpowering desire to strike out at him. Sandy was right. This idiot wasn’t worth busting her knuckles over. But if he pushed again, next time she wouldn’t stop to think before slugging him right upside his pretty-boy head.

  “You’re asking for complete and total dismissal, Miss Rush.”

  Kate stepped outside onto the small front porch, not bothering to close the door behind her. Let them all hear what a coward her former superior was.

  Shoving her finger in Tyler’s face, she said, “Look, Lawrence, we both know you’ve got no business here. Sandy and I are no longer employees of the DEA, as you know full well. So what makes you think you have any business confronting us and claiming to be our superior in an organization to which we do not belong? If you want to ask us anything, I suggest you get a warrant that entitles you to ask questions. Perhaps you would like to explain to a judge why you think we are material witnesses to some crime you are investigating. Or would you prefer to get an arrest warrant for some crime we have presumably committed?

  “And if you came here to rub the fact that we are no longer with the DEA in our faces, you shouldn’t have wasted your time. We no longer have the slightest desire to associate with a bunch of . . . cowards and bullies. Which, judging from your high status in the DEA, it seems reasonable to guess members of that formerly elite organization have come to. If you’re smart—whoops, scratch that—we all know that’s not possible.

  “So, before I decide to kick your ass a second time, Mr. Special Agent Tyler, I suggest you stick that pretty little head of yours between your legs and run for cover. You’ve done that for most of your career, so it should be very easy for you to do it now.” Kate inched so close to Tyler’s face, their noses almost touched. “You gettin’ this, Lawrence?”

  Tyler had the good sense to step back from Kate’s intense glare and balled-up fists. In so doing, he lost his footing, which caused him to fall backward. Before he fell to the sandy area below, he managed to grab onto the porch railing. If Kate hadn’t been so angry, she would’ve doubled over in a fit of laughter. From the sounds coming from the kitchen, neither Tick nor Pete felt any urge to restrain himself. Kate smiled.

  Tyler brushed imaginary dirt from his shorts. “You’re going to regret those words, Miss Rush. I need to speak to the cop. If he’s smart, he’ll give me the answers I’m looking for.” Tyler stared back at Kate. For a split second, she thought he looked as though he was going to apologize. But if so, he had had a change of heart because he glared at her as though she were nothing more than dirt beneath his fingernails. Normal behavior for the snobbish wimp.

  Tick chose that moment to make an appearance. “I’m the cop you’re looking for. Apparently, I’m smarter than some.” Standing next to Kate, he placed a protective arm around her. “What do you want?” he asked Tyler, none too kindly.

  Special Agent Tyler stood tall, shoulders back. He cleared his throat, then looked Tick directly in the eye. “This is none of your business.”

  In a tone so menacing it caused Kate to glance up at Tick just to make sure it was really his voice she heard as he spoke to his unwelcome visitor, he said, “If in addition to being exceedingly illmannered, you are also hard of hearing, let me repeat myself. I’m the cop to whom you referred. I heard you wanted to talk to me. Now state your business or get the fuck off my property.

  “If you are very polite about it, and I’m of a mind to do so, I might give you some answers. If not, then you’ll need to get one of those warrants Miss Rush spoke of. And if you decide to do that, something tells me you’re not going to like my way of resolving this situation one bit,” Tick proclaimed. “You see, I seriously doubt that you have any standing to get any warrants at all. In fact, your attitude tells me that you are desperate for some reason.”

  Now that his bluff had been called, Tyler was back in coward mode, and his gaze dropped to his feet, then back to Kate. “Miss Rush, this isn’t going to bode well for you at all, trust me. When—”

  “Stop!” Tick interjected in a firm voice, not allowing Tyler to continue. “Simply state what it is you came to say. You will not speak disrespectfully to Miss Rush in my presence. Are we clear on that, Larry, or do I need to clarify it for you?”

  Kate’s heart sang and did a one-handed cartwheel. She really liked Tick Kelly. A man’s man for sure, standing up for her when he barely knew her. Sandy’d been right on the money again. He must like something about her. Why else would he come to her defense? For a split second, Kate almost felt sorry for Tyler. The big coward. Fortunately, the feeling passed as quickly as it came.

  With an unusual air of bravado, Tyler taunted, “It’s obvious you’re sleeping with her, so there is really nothing to clarify.”

  Tick grabbed Tyler by his shirt collar and yanked him so high he had to stand on his tippy toes. “Did you not understand a word I said? You really must be as stupid as you look.” He observed Tyler’s hot pink and orange shirt. “Now, tell former Agent Rush you’re sorry, or I won’t be responsible for my actions. Are you gettin’ this, Larry?” Tick asked before relinquishing his grip.

  Tyler’s face turned a dozen shades of red. Before he had a chance to reply, Bird soared through the front door and planted himself on top of Tyler’s head. The beast made quick work of pecking at the tender bald spot the hapless DEA agent had tried in vain to hide with a slicked-back comb-over. His hands flew in every direction as he swatted at Bird.

  “Bullshit! Bullshit!” Bird screeched, buzzing around Tyler’s head like a swarm of angry bees.

  Kate gaped at the comical display, then, before she could stop herself, began to giggle uncontrollably. Tick caught on, and the two of them almost forgot their anger at their unwelcome intruder. Tears filled Kate’s eyes as she watched Bird cut Mr. Special Agent Lawrence Tyler down to size. In Bird talk, Tyler would be hummingbird si
ze, Kate thought, which caused her to laugh even harder.

  Through his laughter, Tick finally managed to shout, “Stop it, Bird. Leave the man alone.” On command, Bird’s incessant pecking stopped, and he flew to his perch on Tick’s shoulder. Then, apparently thinking better of it, he zoomed back, landing on top of Tyler’s head, the agent’s normally groomed hair now resembling a bird’s nest. Roosting in the tangle of thinning black hair, Bird proceeded to leave a healthy dollop of bird droppings right on top of Tyler’s head before resuming his position on Tick’s shoulder.

  Through her laughter, Kate managed to say, “You meant birdshit, right, Bird?”

  Never in all the years she’d known Tyler had she ever seen him so . . . discomfited.

  Using the hem of his brightly colored shirt, Tyler mopped Bird’s surprise gift off the top of his head. His face had turned so red, Kate feared he would suffer a stroke or a heart attack. It’d serve him right, she thought, then quickly admonished herself. While she didn’t like the man one bit, she truly did not wish him dead. Not today, anyway, here on Tick’s porch.

  “I’m not going to allow you to leave until you’ve apologized to Ms. Rush,” Tick stated firmly.

  Tyler stared angrily at them. “I can’t believe you two! Here I am, an officer of the law, your . . . animal uses my head as a toilet, and you expect me to apologize to a woman I detest? I don’t think so!”

  Tick took a step forward, Tyler a step backward. He grabbed the porch railing for support. “Kate Rush, you are a bitch, no matter what anyone else thinks. I bet you’re PMSing again. I’m sorry, okay? Now there, are you happy?”

  Tick stepped to the edge of the porch before grabbing hold of the arm Tyler had wrapped around the railing. He peeled his fingers back one at a time. “This is getting monotonous, Special Agent Tyler. She’s not a bitch, and I for one don’t accept your half-assed apology. Now, either come up with something more sincere, or I will personally call your superior myself. If that doesn’t produce the desired results, which is a proper and sincere apology to Ms. Rush, then after I phone the governor and Florida’s two senators, I will personally call the administrator of the DEA, whom I just happen to have known long before he took the position. Something tells me he wouldn’t like your treating Miss Rush disrespectfully.”